For 70 years, UNICEF has been on the front lines of the defense of children’s rights in every region of the world. The organization was founded in 1946, in the aftermath of World War II, and its first projects involved providing food and clothing to child refugees. Since then, it’s battled child disease, famine, female genital mutilation, and child marriage. The United Nations agency for children knows what it is talking about and doesn’t mince its words.
Now, as global leaders descend on Paris for the critical COP21 global climate summit, UNICEF has made it clear what is truly at stake. In a new report titled Unless We Act Now, UNICEF expresses those stakes bluntly: “There may be no greater, growing threat facing the world’s children—and their children—than climate change.” No one has made a stronger case that our children, and future generations of children, belong at the center of the global conversation about the climate crisis and what we must do to combat it.